Leadership
Deborah Robinson, MBA, Ph.D., Director and Co-Study Director
Dr. Robinson is a senior program manager with more than 25 years experience working with agencies, organizations, and movements in numerous countries. She has lived or worked in, or traveled to 75 countries to date and has been involved in a variety of issues; human rights, environmental justice, racism, sustainable development, emergency management, violence against women, as well as others. The thread that ties this work together is that it was all conducted from a social justice perspective and focused on issues of inclusion and marginalization.
She is the Director of the African Americans Living Abroad Research and Education Project; also known as #WeGlobal. She is also Co-Study Director with Dr. James Jackson on the African Americans Living Abroad study. Dr. Robinson is also Assistant Director of PRBA for International Projects at the University of Michigan. Deborah has over 15 years’ experience in survey research methodology and was trained at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. While there, she worked on the National Survey of Black Americans, the Three Generational Family Study, and National Black Election Survey. She is implementing a domestic and international organizing strategy to locate African Americans living abroad. Domestically, she is working with libraries, museums, Black and Africana Studies programs, and HBCUs.
She also has over 14 years’ experience developing and delivering training courses and teaching. Most recently, she was Academic Director at the School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, DC Center. Previously, she was Chair of the Emergency Readiness and Response Management degree program at the National Labor College. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the National Legal Preparedness Training Program at the University of the District of Columbia. In that capacity, she was responsible for the development of the course, Legal Issues and Disasters: Things You Should Know, and its delivery across the 50 states and 6 U.S. territories. She has also taught at Howard University and the University of Michigan.
Dr. Robinson received her BA in psychology from Williams College, her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in social psychology, and her MBA, with a specialization in international organizations, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
She is the Director of the African Americans Living Abroad Research and Education Project; also known as #WeGlobal. She is also Co-Study Director with Dr. James Jackson on the African Americans Living Abroad study. Dr. Robinson is also Assistant Director of PRBA for International Projects at the University of Michigan. Deborah has over 15 years’ experience in survey research methodology and was trained at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. While there, she worked on the National Survey of Black Americans, the Three Generational Family Study, and National Black Election Survey. She is implementing a domestic and international organizing strategy to locate African Americans living abroad. Domestically, she is working with libraries, museums, Black and Africana Studies programs, and HBCUs.
She also has over 14 years’ experience developing and delivering training courses and teaching. Most recently, she was Academic Director at the School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, DC Center. Previously, she was Chair of the Emergency Readiness and Response Management degree program at the National Labor College. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the National Legal Preparedness Training Program at the University of the District of Columbia. In that capacity, she was responsible for the development of the course, Legal Issues and Disasters: Things You Should Know, and its delivery across the 50 states and 6 U.S. territories. She has also taught at Howard University and the University of Michigan.
Dr. Robinson received her BA in psychology from Williams College, her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in social psychology, and her MBA, with a specialization in international organizations, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
James S. Jackson, Ph.D., Co-Study Director
Dr. Jackson is the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, all at the University of Michigan. He serves on the #WeGlobal Advisory Committee and is Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Deborah Robinson on the African Americans Living Abroad study.
As the founding director of the Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA), Dr. Jackson is internationally recognized for his innovative research on the influence of race on the health of African Americans, including the groundbreaking National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) and National Survey of American Life (NASL) which are considered the most extensive social, economic, and mental and physical health surveys of the US Black population across the lifespan.
He is past Director of Institute for Social Research (ISR), the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, past national president of the Black Students Psychological Association, and Association of Black Psychologists. He has received many awards, including the University of Michigan's inaugural Distinguished Diversity Scholar Career Award, and the Distinguished Career Contributions to Research Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, American Psychological Association. He is also an elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.
He received his Ph.D. is Social Psychology from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
As the founding director of the Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA), Dr. Jackson is internationally recognized for his innovative research on the influence of race on the health of African Americans, including the groundbreaking National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) and National Survey of American Life (NASL) which are considered the most extensive social, economic, and mental and physical health surveys of the US Black population across the lifespan.
He is past Director of Institute for Social Research (ISR), the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, past national president of the Black Students Psychological Association, and Association of Black Psychologists. He has received many awards, including the University of Michigan's inaugural Distinguished Diversity Scholar Career Award, and the Distinguished Career Contributions to Research Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, American Psychological Association. He is also an elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.
He received his Ph.D. is Social Psychology from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.